Van Helsing: Among Mine Enemies
by Pyrotarian
Summary: Van Helsing is sent to Czechoslovakia to find a missing Professor, among grave rumors, a strange disease, dead people, and of course, Van Helsing's past. R&R, please.
1. Chapter I

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in the Van Helsing universe. Okay?

Plot Summary: Van Helsing is sent to the southernmost point in Czechoslovakia, where an eccentric scientist has disappeared under grave circumstances and rumors that he had been working on something terrible before his vanishing.

Chapter I

February 15, 1891- Prague, Czechoslovakia

Professor Mladen Raedier drummed his fingers nervously as he wrote. He shot a glance out of his window, a few stories up from the ground, to the angered masses below him. Soon, they would break through his massive iron gate, and come marching up the spiraling stone steps of his laboratory, which looked like a massive ebony box with the entwined stairs. His thoughts returned to his log, and after pushing himself to write as fast as he could, he finished. He quickly put his notebook under his arm and turned to leave. Yet when he turned he was facing someone he never hoped to see again.

Doctor Erich Arrdon, a past apprentice of the Professor. When Raedier saw him, he dropped his log book and jumped back. "Erich? What in Heaven's sakes are you doing here?"

"What you were doing, Mladen. What you were doing to make these people want to kill you!" Arrdon said stolidly.

Raedier seemed taken aback. "I've done nothing wrong. I just wanted to find a cure for a disease. Is that so bad?"

"It is if you have to kill people for it. Three dead bodies were found, with their blood drained from their bodies."

"I didn't do it!" Raedier said, shocked.

Arrdon looked at him with unforgiving eyes. "I'm sorry, old friend. But you've gone too far this time." And with that, Arrdon pulled a revolver on the Professor.

Raedier yelled out a cry of dismay, and ran toward his large window. A bullet fired, clipping the wool of his jacket. Another fired, this time plowing right into the middle of Raedier's back. A small bit of dust flew from the point from where the bullet landed, letting Arrdon know it was a direct hit. Raedier staggered, then knocked over some equipment on his work table, with glass shattering and liquid spilling. An electric wave caught fire to the drapes above, setting the east part of the room aflame. Raedier then tripped and fell into the liquid as the entire work table collapsed above him, spilling more liquid and sent an electric wire into the liquid. The room began to creak, and Arrdon flew out of the chamber, as a section of the wall shuddered under a surge of electricity.

By the time Arrdon got out, the highest section of the obsidian edifice exploded, followed by the middle floor, which all gave way into the lowest part, the building crumbling amid flames and electric bolts cracking. A massive plume of fire shot skyward as the rubble hit the earth. Very soon, the collapsing had stopped, and the rubble was at rest. Arrdon stood among the villagers in awe at the disintegrated building, portions in flames.

And out of the rubble, with its smoky tendrils curling around the legs of the villagers, was a green mist.


	2. Chapter II

Chapter II

February 26, 1891- Rome, Vatican City

Gabriel Van Helsing walked grimly up the steps of the Vatican, and into the church. He stepped into the pew. "Cardinal." He called out. And in response, the Cardinal drew back the screen separating the two.

"About time. I see you killed him as well."

"Well, he didn't leave me that much of a choice. He was going to throw me in the ravine." Van Helsing said with a grim expression on his face.

"I'm sure. Well, more or less, that will be the last we hear of The Norwegian Wolf-Man." Cardinal Jinnette said morbidly.

Then they both rose and walked down a descending stairwell. "I presume The Holy Order has another prematurely picked assignment for me?"

The Cardinal smiled. "Yes, they have."

"Just what I was afraid of." Van Helsing said as they came to a stop at the projector screen. They were in a large room, crawling with monks and mullahs and scientists, experimenting with chemicals, weapons, and electric devices. Open flames from Bunsen Burners and the sound of bullets firing and the smell of hot lead abounded throughout the place. In one corner of the room, a large tank of black-purple liquid was being fed through a narrow tube into a gyroscope-shaped spinning tank, which fed into a series of rotating vats, with electric currents pulsing into them. In another corner a man with a long and poorly kept beard fired a rifle at a target with rapid succession.

The Cardinal pointed to the projector screen. "You are to go to the northern end of Czechoslovakia, into a city called Prague, where mysterious circumstances have brought themselves to be known to us in this past week." The projector screen flashed, and with a _click_ the slide revealed itself as a map of Czechoslovakia. "First, city villagers attempted to kill this man," the projector flashed again, at a picture of a well-shaven man with a high forehead and features reminiscent of a fox, "a Professor Mladen Raedier. This man's significance is that after he was killed and his laboratory ruined, a strange disease began to circulate around the city. Symptoms include increased hair growth and decay of skin, deformation of features, calloused and black hands, and in the last stage, disappearance of the victim." Van Helsing marveled at this. The Cardinal looked at him then resumed, saying, "Our only link from him to the disease is that he was working on a cure for a disease before he was killed. The name of the particular disease is not known, but hopefully that will become clear in time. In fact, that's why he was killed in the first place."

"Why? For wanting to cure a disease?" Van Helsing asked questioningly.

"No, for killing three people. They were found drained of blood, which presumably the Professor stole because he needed human plasma. There even marks where he used the syringe. We believe there is a connection between the disease and this Professor. That is why we need you to go." The Cardinal concluded.

Van Helsing wondered at this for a moment, looking at the picture of the Professor. Something wasn't right. Something was amiss, and he would find out what. He walked over to Carl, a friar in a brown robe, which was all he ever wore. "What have you got for me this time, Carl?" He asked.

Carl gesture toward the table covered in devices. "Anything you'll ever need. See here," Carl said holding Van Helsing's gas-powered crossbow, "you already know what that is." Carl said, putting it in his bag. "And here's your shotgun, which I took the liberty to modify."

"What have you done to it this time?" Van Helsing asked with a smirk.

Carl pulled out a rectangular clip and firmly placed it just before the handle and trigger. "I call it, the repeating shotgun. This clip here, holds fifteen rounds, twelve more than usual, which I think will come very handy in a pinch. It has two modes, as dictated by this switch," Carl said, pointing to a lever on the back end of the barrel, "They are Regular and Automatic. In Regular, consider it a typical shotgun, just keep pumping. In Automatic, you just hold the trigger and the rounds just come flying out, no pumping required!" Carl said joyfully.

Van Helsing looked at it and gestured toward the target. "May I?" He asked.

"Go ahead." Carl replied. Van Helsing shouldered the gun and pointed it at the target. He flicked the switch to Regular. And when he fired, it was like a normal shotgun, as Carl had said. Then he switched it to Automatic, and pulled the trigger. The barrel spat flame along with bullets as it chewed threw the ammunition within ten seconds. He choked laughter.

"Wow, Carl. I say I like this mode better."

Carl chuckled as he took the gun and put it in Van Helsing's bag, along with a few clips of ammunition. "The only problem with that mode is that it doesn't have great accuracy like the other does."

"I'll make do." Van Helsing said.

Carl then showed Van Helsing the rotating vat of dark liquid he had saw earlier. "This liquid, when gone under the serious conditioning it is going through now, becomes a highly volatile fluid which is perfect for big explosions." Carl said as he put a vial in a box and then put the box in his bag. "Just don't store it next to an open flame, okay? Heat is what makes it blow up. Carl then gave Van Helsing the other weapons and ammunition necessary. Van Helsing pocketed a black and silver box when Carl wasn't looking.

"Well, I think that about covers it." Carl said, grinning ear to ear.

"Nope, you're coming with me." Van Helsing said as he started through the exit.

Carl's grin quickly dissipated. "What? That can't be, I asked to stay here."

Van Helsing turned around with a wry grin. "Just because you asked for it doesn't mean you'll get it."

Carl groaned and started after the monster hunter. Cardinal Jinnette looked at them and turned to a nearby smith. "Why is Carl going with Van Helsing? I told him he could stay."


End file.
